Via Shutterstock

Get some earplugs. The cicadas will be back in a few weeks, with a brood that emerges once every 17 years set to rise from the ground and let out its horrible song.

Brood II, which last rose in 1996, is expected to appear in early May, WTOP reports. And though it won’t be as manic as the last major cicada brood to inhabit the D.C. area, it could still get quite loud:

“This is a pretty good size brood, not as large as Brood X, which we saw back in 2004,” says Michael Raupp, an entomologist at the University of Maryland. “However, I think in the region there are going to be some local pockets of very, very brilliant cicada emergences.”

This wave of cicadas should peak around Memorial Day, Raupp says.

The hatching is actually a few weeks behind because March has been so cold. Cicadas rise up when the soil temperature hits about 64 degrees at eight inches below the ground. And while cicadas do not bite or sting, they can be dangerous to crops, trees, and gardens as the females of the species burrow their eggs deep within the plants. They are also quite plentiful. Brood II is expected to appear along a swath of the East Coast stretching from Connecticut to North Carolina.